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frequency of presence; to disturb; to annoy; to frequent and molest or harass; as, fleas infest dogs and cats; a sea infested with pirates. To poison vermin that infest his plants. Cowper. These, said the genius, are envy, avarice, superstition, love, with the like cares and passions that infest human life. Addison. A…

The act of infesting or state of being infested; molestation; vexation; annoyance. Bacon. Free from the infestation of enemies. Donne.

One who, or that which, infests.

Having no mirth; not festive or merry; dull; cheerless; gloomy; forlorn. [R.]

Want of festivity, cheerfulness, or mirth; dullness; cheerlessness. [R.]

Mischievous; harmful; dangerous. [Obs.] "Infestuous as serpents." Bacon.

An insect of the family Coccidæ, which infests the bark of trees and vines.

more or less resembling true beans. Bean aphis (Zoöl.), a plant louse (Aphis fabæ) which infests the bean plant. -- Bean fly (Zoöl.), a fly found on bean flowers. -- Bean goose (Zoöl.), a species of goose (Anser segetum). -- Bean weevil (Zoöl.), a small weevil that in the larval state destroys beans. The American s…

A wingless, bloodsucking, hemipterous insect (Cimex Lectularius), sometimes infesting houses and especially beds. See Illustration in Appendix.

A downy species of aphis, or plant louse, destructive to fruit trees, infesting both the roots and branches; -- also applied to several other injurious insects.

part. -- Body louse (Zoöl.), a species of louse (Pediculus vestimenti), which sometimes infests the human body and clothes. See Grayback. -- Body plan (Shipbuilding), an end elevation, showing the conbour of the sides of a ship at certain points of her length. -- Body politic, the collective body of a nation or sta…

The larvæ of several species of botfly, especially those larvæ which infest the stomach, throat, or intestines of the horse, and are supposed to be the cause of various ailments. [Written also botts.]

The state of being infested with bugs.

Infested or abounding with bugs.

The practice of hanging, upon the cultivated fig tree, branches of the wild fig infested with minute hymenopterous insects.

for a long journey, or marching or traveling together, esp. through deserts and countries infested by robbers or hostile tribes, as in Asia or Africa.

ed for its habit of inserting acorns in holes which it drills in trees. The acorns become infested by insect larvæ, which, when grown, are extracted for food by the bird.

A piratical vessel. Barbary corsairs . . . infested the coast of the Mediterranean. Prescott.

One of the marauders who, in the Revolutionary War infested the neutral ground between the American and British lines, and committed depredations on the Americans.

wire grass, etc. -- Crab louse (Zoöl.), a species of louse (Phthirius pubis), sometimes infesting the human body. -- Crab plover (Zoöl.), an Asiatic plover (Dromas ardeola). -- Crab's eyes, or Crab's stones, masses of calcareous matter found, at certain seasons of the year, on either side of the stomach of the Euro…